The Hornets are more dangerous, tho. They only lack shooters (that Peja injury is really hurting them), but they play decent defense, are a great rebounding team and have enough scoring to get into the playoffs.

TMC wrote:The Hornets are more dangerous, tho. They only lack shooters (that Peja injury is really hurting them), but they play decent defense, are a great rebounding team and have enough scoring to get into the playoffs.

Hmm...decent defense and great rebounding. Now there is a concept. It just goes to show how far those two facets go in making a team good. On paper the Warriors have twice as much talent as the Hornets...BUT, their records are almost identical. Injuries are NOT an excuse as Paul was out for over a month. I will leave it up to you to determine why they tied record wise with the Warriors. To me, it is obvious.

ChicagoTom wrote:Hmm...decent defense and great rebounding. Now there is a concept. It just goes to show how far those two facets go in making a team good. On paper the Warriors have twice as much talent as the Hornets...BUT, their records are almost identical. Injuries are NOT an excuse as Paul was out for over a month. I will leave it up to you to determine why they tied record wise with the Warriors. To me, it is obvious.

Hey, don't get me wrong. It's not like I love the kind of team we have. I'd much rather have a much tougher team that scores less but wins games through defense, controlling the boards and fast break, but that's not what we have... and we cannot easily change into that.

TMC wrote:Hey, don't get me wrong. It's not like I love the kind of team we have. I'd much rather have a much tougher team that scores less but wins games through defense, controlling the boards and fast break, but that's not what we have... and we cannot easily change into that.

I guess I just don't understand why a coach like Don Nelson does not give a toss about defense and rebounding. Too many Warrior fans just say, "well when we hired Nelson we knew what we getting into. He does not care about defense and reboudning." It is a built in excuse with Nelson and I am tired of it. No matter how bad the team plays, no one ever wants to hold this coach responsible. That to me is a joke. Yes, the Warriors are fun to watch, but you do not have to change your offensive philosophy to get your team to play defense and rebound.

Players always say Nellie is the funnest coach they have had. I no why...he does not make them work on the defensive side of the floor.

I am not suggesting the Warriors change everything around and slow the tempo down. I am just saying more time and energy needs to be devoted to the defensive end of the floor as well as rebounding.

As for the quote above about "not having it." How do we really know what we have defensively if no one is being asked to play good, hard defense night in and night out? We may have some defensive gems on this roster, but because defense is not asked of this team or being taught for that matter, we have no idea what we could potentially have. Nellie just needs to get players to work harder on defense and rebounding.

Someone needs to be held accountable for the teams lackluster play in those two areas and to me, that person is Don Nelson. Until he decides to care, this team will never be higher than a #7 or #8 seed in the West no matter how much talent is on the roster and how many points they score.

TMC wrote:Hey, don't get me wrong. It's not like I love the kind of team we have. I'd much rather have a much tougher team that scores less but wins games through defense, controlling the boards and fast break, but that's not what we have... and we cannot easily change into that.

I guess I just don't understand why a coach like Don Nelson does not give a toss about defense and rebounding. Too many Warrior fans just say, "well when we hired Nelson we knew what we getting into. He does not care about defense and reboudning." It is a built in excuse with Nelson and I am tired of it. No matter how bad the team plays, no one ever wants to hold this coach responsible. That to me is a joke. Yes, the Warriors are fun to watch, but you do not have to change your offensive philosophy to get your team to play defense and rebound.

Players always say Nellie is the funnest coach they have had. I no why...he does not make them work on the defensive side of the floor.

I am not suggesting the Warriors change everything around and slow the tempo down. I am just saying more time and energy needs to be devoted to the defensive end of the floor as well as rebounding.

As for the quote above about "not having it." How do we really know what we have defensively if no one is being asked to play good, hard defense night in and night out? We may have some defensive gems on this roster, but because defense is not asked of this team or being taught for that matter, we have no idea what we could potentially have. Nellie just needs to get players to work harder on defense and rebounding.

Someone needs to be held accountable for the teams lackluster play in those two areas and to me, that person is Don Nelson. Until he decides to care, this team will never be higher than a #7 or #8 seed in the West no matter how much talent is on the roster and how many points they score.

Careful now, you may be branded a "hater," like I have been for stating the obvious about this team.

Nelson is not going to empahsize defense with any team that he coaches. Old dogs do not learn new tricks. Also, because he is committed to the zone, the Warriors will ultimately lose the battle of the boards, too.

While a fun team to watch, a Nelson coached team ultimately does not get very far in the playoffs. With Mullin's failure to make the off-season blockbuster trade that he had promised to the media and the fans, he, Mullin had to bring in Nelson in order to save his own self from media and fan scrutiny. Nelson was brought in, not necessarily to win (which would be a nice bonus), but rather, to keep the media and fans from srutinizing the Warrior front office blunders. Nelson's teams score points, play with odd lineups, and are generally entertaining to watch. Wheter it be the Knicks or the Mavs, Nelson had to go before those teams got to playing decent defense. Musselman stressed defense and rebounding while he was here with the Warriors; however, Mullin let him go in order to bring in his hand puppet, Monty, and we all saw how that turned out.

On a more positive note, this team is now comprised of athletes who can better implement Nelson's coaching philosophy, which unfortunately, does not include defense nor rebounding.